35 Actions

How do you find your unique style?Good advice. Maturing as a writer takes a few years. Given your (questioner's) age, don't worry about finding a style just yet. Write as much as you can; use whatever style you think is appropriate to each piece or whatever style you're in the mood for at the time. With time, as you reread your old work, you'll begin to get a feel for the direction in which you want to go.

How far into a speculative novel should one go before introducing the central conflict?Thank you for this remarkably thorough answer. In the case of what I'm writing, the central players are introduced in the very first scene and the first splinter conflict begins around page 20. But now I see that it then goes into a four-chapter tangent of character study and info-dumps. My original intention was that the origins of the central conflict and the true natures of the antagonists are to be shrouded in mystery. But I'm now trying to balance between being mysterious and being obscure. But I think that's a topic for a separate question!

How does one deal with world builder's syndrome?Instead of writing lengthy notes, I maintain a separate timeline for each character or entity in the story from beginning to end. I also mark interactions between them. This allows me to keep the story consistent. E.g. like knowing that a certain character was only fifteen when a certain battle took place so he could not have been married at the time, etc.